By Terry Taylor,Executive Director
Interfaith Paths to Peace

Someone pillaged the contents of my pickup truck recently. What’s interesting isn’t so much what they stole as what they left behind.
It was one morning a couple of weeks ago. I got up and stepped out on the front porch to retrieve the newspaper. When I did, the neighbor, who was picking up his paper turned to me and said, “Hey, Terry, that’s an odd place to park your truck.” When I looked at the street I saw that my truck had rolled down the hill from where I had parked it and it had come to rest part way into the intersection.
When I saw my truck, I thought that I had accidentally left it in neutral, and that it had rolled down the hill. I walked over to the truck in my pajamas to move it to a safe place. When I got to it, I found one of my insurance papers lying beside the driver’s door. When I got inside, I could tell that someone had moved the seat back. Then I realized that just about everything I had left in the truck was gone. I admit that I was somewhat to blame in this. Before that day I rarely if ever locked the truck’s doors.
When I inventoried what had been taken I noticed something odd and important. The thieves had stolen a few things that they could sell: among them my winter coat, a small and inexpensive digital voice recorder. They also took from the glove box a few things they couldn’t sell: the truck’s owner’s manual along with the vehicle registration and insurance papers. Sadly, among the missing items were several medical devices I use in the ongoing therapy for my injured left hand, as well as a yarmulke that belonged to my late stepfather.
But it was what they left behind on the bench seat that drew my attention and caused me to wonder. Resting on the passenger’s side of the seat was my copy of the book, “This I Believe,” which is a compilation of short personal belief statements by a variety of people, some famous, some not so famous.
After reporting the theft to the police, I joked with friends that I would have advised the thieves to steal “This I Believe,” and leave behind my material possessions.
Then I thought further. The decision by the thief or thieves about what to take and what to leave behind made me think about some of my own decisions.
My first thoughts went to what I would pack if I only had a few minutes to evacuate my apartment in an emergency. Would I take my small safe? Some of the rare books I own? My own art work? I thought about this imaginary situation for a while but didn’t come to any real conclusions about the possessions I would evacuate.
Then I started to think about what I take with me all of the time. The irony of the thieves’ decision to leave behind “This I Believe,” was not lost on me. I’ve spent more than a little time lately thinking about what I believe, and asking myself whether or not I carry “what I believe” with me each morning when I leave home.

I would like to say that I do, but like most people I get bogged down in the everyday details of just existing. I don’t think very often about what I believe. I don’t carry it as often as I should in my heart. I think that maybe I should listen to the joking advice I gave to the thieves…but take it seriously. Leave behind the material stuff; take what you believe.